OT: doodleboodle
"Actually, I am leaning toward the Buddist "religion". Several of my friends have already moved from being christian (by birth) or jewish (by birth) to becoming Buddist because they are sick of the conservative religious right. Basically, ANYTHING (except Islam) to get away from the right wing christians. Right wing (conservative) christians usually succeed in driving the moderate christians away."
Response:
Buddism...you must keep me posted on that experience. I would like to know about it. Interesting about your friends. Interesting is the statement of "being christian (by birth)". I assume you mean people born to parents who claimed to be Christian. If I am correct let me state that this does not make them Christian any more than eating at McDonalds every day would make them Ronald McDonald. Being Christian is a choice, a decesion regarding Faith in Jesus. And secondly, if they had made that decision, it is interesting that they would allow individuals that they disagree with on a political/religious/theocratical level to deter them from this decision and hence their faith. Maybe I missunderstand you here but my guess would be that they never made that decision. One final note, the entire sum of the Christian faith is not the "conservative religious right". Christianity is quite a cultural mix. My wife and I are actually Baptist but go to a Nondenominational church, as it is a mix between Baptist and Pentecostal. She has original ties to Presbyterian parents who have Congregational roots. But the basis of it all is THAT individual decision for Christ. Anyone avoiding the Christian faith over one issue such as this probably does not want to be Christian to begin with.
"One more thing concerning the word "rabbi". My wife is a jew (no-practising of course). She says the word "rabbi" means teacher and those who followed Christ called him "rabbi". Spiritual? Leave me to one side for a moment. My wife's mother came from Poland and they were NOT rich. In 1938, knowing what Hitler intended, they scraped together enough money to send the youngest daughter (my wife's mother) to the US to live with relatives but they didn't have enough for the other 2 daughters or the 3 sons. Of course, Jews do not consider Christ was the Messiah so they had to rely on the God of Abraham to deliver them as He did in the early book of fairy stories (the Old Testament). Well, guess what? HE didn't. My wife's sisters, brothers, mother, father, uncles, aunts, etc, ALL died in one of three concentration camps. Hey! Maybe if they were spiritual and trusted the christan cult leader, HE would have saved them! Still, as you say, there are more spiritual things to consider than being led into into a gas chamber, slaughtered and shoved in ovens 10 at a time. In the after-life which Christ has promised, if they converted just before they sucked in the last whiff of gas, they can all sit around telling each other, "How wonderful it is here in heaven and how they had wished the Nazi's had gassed them sooner."
Response:
As I said in my first post, history is replete with man's inhumanity to man and his rebellion against God. The time period you mention is a religious persecution on probably the grandest scales in history. Truely I offer my condolences to your wife. These men were either anti-God or heavily influenced by those that were. It is this anti-God sentiment that roams this earth seeking all to devour. Yes, it is allowed by God because otherwise he has puppets on a string. And I will admit as I have done with others that I do not understand it all. I really, really do recommend those two books to you by John Foxe and Deitrich Bonhoeffer. I believe you and your wife would find them helpful. Another author, what an idiot I am to not remember, is Corrie Ten Bume's book, The Hiding Place. They are much more able than I.
"My friend, carry on thinking about you "spiritual" religion which has more blood on it's hands than the Nazi's ever had. Try thinking about the last several hundred years and how many kids were molested by "spiritual" clergy. It didn't start happening in 1990. Above all, thank your God that you were born (or moved to) a big, fat, wealthy country were you can live in complacency for all your "3 score years and ten", pontificating about the "Good news which Jesus brings", without worrying that famine is just around the corner or you have to watch your children dying from starvation or some dreadful disease which you cannot afford to treat."
Response:
I suppose we are coming to an impasse here. Please bear with me. You continue to have a desire to look upon all the wrongs of the world and there are plenty to see. And knowing what I now know I will not be critical of you or your wife over it, and I would not do so anyway. But you must know that there is goodness and mercy much more so. If there were not, would we not all be dead or dying? I do not want to get into a back and forth on this but consider the tens of thousands of Christian missionaries and Other care workers of all fields of work and millions upon millions of dollars that go into nearly every country of the world to bring physical comfort as well as spiritual solace, and in some cases standing in the shadow of tyranical governments that have a large responsibility for the condition of their own people. If this is not God then who is it?
Thanks
Wayne
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